There are countless skills in football that are reasonably easy to understand but not necessarily all that simple to pull off, with the quick turn being a good example of one. Ask most people what is involved in a quick turn and they will understand the concept, even if they can’t quite get their head around how it is that you perform it.
The quick turn can be crucial if you find yourself in a position of being pressured from behind, where a smartly pulled-off 180-degree turn can put you in space and give you the time necessary to be able to pass the ball to a teammate or even get a shot off.
Performing A Quick Turn
Picture yourself heading in one direction with the ball, then suddenly heading in the opposite direction with the ball still at your feet. That, in simple terms, is a quick turn. It is a 180-degree shift in your movement that, when produced properly, can leave your opposition player behind. In order to be able to practice the skill, you simply need something such as a wall or a bounce-back frame that can send the ball back to you at pace. From there, you receive the ball with the inside of your foot and roll it around as you shift your body so it is facing in completely the opposite direction.
When you’re looking to use the skill in a match scenario, you will obviously need a teammate to pass the ball into you. Still, the process is pretty much the same, receiving the ball and controlling it with the inside of your foot before dragging it back and pushing it in the other direction. It is a skill that can give you acres of space on a football pitch, thanks to the fact that the opposition player won’t see it coming and will have no real way to be able to counter it. Your body facing one way before quickly shifting to be facing another will be a situation that will open up the playing area in your favour.
One of the key aspects of this move is to keep the ball as close to you as possible in order to stop your opponent from being able to take the ball away from you. You also need to make sure that you can perform it quickly, with the speed of the movement being the thing that will cause the opposition defender such trouble. When you’re first learning the skill, start slowly but look to gradually move it to be carried out as quickly as possible over time. The consistency of this skill is the thing that will allow you to pull it off even when being pressured from behind by another player.